The next leg of our journey brought us along the Ugab river to the famous Vingerklip. Long ago the river cut through the landscape and created towers and funny shaped hills with steep sides. One of these towers is the Vingerklip, so narrow at the bottom that one wonders that it does not tip over. We enjoyed this amazing landscape for 2 days and then carried on to Twyfelfontein. On the way we visited the petrified forest where we marvelled at 30m long logs of stone. We stayed in the Aba-Huab community camp, right next to the Huab river. One evening I strolled along the riverbed and discovered several elephant footprints. Although they were not fresh I found this quite exciting. We explored the surrounding, found the Wondergat, a very deep and narrow hole in the ground and looked at the Organ Pipes, a strange volcanic rock formation. Twyfelfontein is known for its rock engravings and we joined an interesting tour to see these. Usually I prefer looking at rock art at my leisure, without a guide. However, this was not possible in this place and it was indeed good to get some explanation of the engravings. Some of the pictures were like a map where temporary and permanent wells are marked, essential knowledge in an area like this. Most engravings showed animals, sometimes with human body parts. This should symbolize the shaman who is transforming into that animal. Then there was an ostrich with 5 necks which showed its movement.
Originally we intended to cut through the Doros Crater to the coast from there, but warnings about people getting lost, lack of a detailed map of the area and lack of information about the way from local people deterred us from this. We went on a day trip on the 4x4 path into the area and back instead. Then we made our way on a long detour around the east of Brandberg to get to the same point.
